Zakore, the story so far
by Looper Trooper
Summary: This is the overview of my campaign to date, in summary form. Let me know whether to write this up properly! PG13 for implied slash


A/N this is the summary of my campaign to date. I am unsure whether to make this into a proper fic, please let me know your opinions. It is addressed in 2nd person as if you were one of the players.  
The world setting is Zakore, a realm of my own invention, and is based in Heritak, a country mostly covered in jungle.  
  
  
  
The story so far...  
  
initial Characters:   
Yakamo, Human Paladin,   
Kern, elven priest of Kernous god of Hunt  
Darell, Balakin (invented human subrace) ranger  
Madika, half-elven transmuter  
Emonaya, half-elven illusionist  
Bella-Donya Kender thief.  
  
Introduction to the realm  
  
Kern and Yakamo  
  
Ran into leopard and were assisted by Renya, an elf from Kern's order who was investigating an upset in the balance of nature. She was working with some centaurs, who told you the story of Izna. She left when you arrived in Drenden, saying others needed her assistance.  
  
  
Darell, Madika and Emonaya  
  
Madika and Emonaya travelled towards Drenden when Darell emerged from the trees, recognising them from a previous encounter. Met up with some lizardmen, who you defeated with the assistance of an archer-healer called Renya, who was enlarged by Madika! On arrival in Drenden she left you.  
  
  
  
"Earning the NPCs"  
  
You (Yakamo, Darell, Madika, Emonaya, Bella and Kern) met up in Drenden upon hearing of Kern's illness. After you had a few drinks the bard playing was arrested by Kaywag soldiers.   
You were approached by Tolen, who said he was the bard, Jakayra's brother and an acolyte of Alakara. You agreed to assist him.  
Reaching an underground hideout on the border between Heritak and Kaywag you ran around killing people and trying to find bits of stone to fit into a lock to open up a funky room you thought Jakayra was in.   
At some point Yakamo drank a potion and became Yakamaya.   
You eventually found the room Jakayra was in and broke through the three(!) locks on the door, but triggered an alarm.   
In a fight, Jakayra was snatched by a necromancer who turned invisible and accessed the funky room while you were fighting humans and dwarves.  
Eventually, after pyrotechnics and the arrival of some centaurs you rescued Jakayra again, but Tolen was killed in the process.  
  
  
  
"Introduction to Dark Rangers - Part 1"  
  
You went to Tanelag, a town in Kaywag where some of Tolen's order reside, and he was restored to you, now wielding the quarterstaff he should have been using all along. Another contact also disguised Jakayra, casting a spell which changed her appearance.  
Unfortunately, Emonaya betrayed the rest of the party and all bar her, Kern (who left the town), Bella and Tolen (who was still at the temple) were imprisoned. After a small fight with Giffs you escaped the prison due to Bella's assistance, met up with Kern, and went to the temple the Lencians in Tanelag told you about.  
The temple was filled with evil warriors-in-training, who seemed to possess all of the qualities of the ranger order that Darell belongs to, but worshiped the goddess of Vengence. You avoided fighting most of these.  
You took the test of balance, you entered a staircase which vanished after you climbed it and had to balance out holy symbols:  
  
Beam/Nameless one  
Alakara/Goddess of Pain (later ID'd as Rosetha)  
Phantos/god of death  
Darell's god (later ID'd as Bala) /god of vengence (later ID'd as Alab)  
  
After the test you ventured on and came to 2 riddles, having 3 chances to find the correct answer. Having failed one of them 2ice, and having whatever you wrote appear in reality, you all wrote one of the possible solutions at the same time (very clever!) to gain entrance.  
  
Big fight with 3 dark rangers and 2 clerics of the goddess of vengence and you left without clearing the temple, but picking up a cracked chalice.  
  
  
  
"Party, meet the Riders"  
  
Having decided to attempt to go to Tolen's high temple to cure Kern, and now Darell you encountered a seemingly hostile warrior.  
At this point, Kern, Darell and Maya were hunting, with Jakayra scouting, and Tolen off collecting herbs. So Madika, Emonaya and Bella met the group. The leader approached, and asked for Jakayra and Tolen. Emonaya fell for the leader, and Madika also felt inclined to assist him. Bella left and found the rest of the party.  
Kern, Darell and Maya returned and refused to openly give in to the mysterious figure, but he called the rest of his party and you were clearly outnumbered. Darell snuck off to find Jakayra before they did. The leader, the ranger and Kern all went after Tolen.  
The whole thing was a test. The group were friends of Jakayra and Tolen, and needed to see if you were safe for them to travel with.  
  
The group was:  
Thren - the warrior (HUGE sword), half-elven, but doesn't initially seem it due to his build, Jakayra's brother and Tolen's soul-mate  
Plen - an fire sorcerer, half-elven, Thren and Jakayra's brother, carries a sword  
Relandrell - a Balakin ranger  
Varaya - a half-elven justice knight  
Kelaref - a human white knight (Paladin)  
Crathonya - a human war priest  
Exodus - a half-elven druid  
  
The group agreed to travel with you to Tolen's temple, but afterwards Tolen would leave with them. It's a good job they came with you cause a hydra got in the way. Huge fight which you, or rather they, won.  
The party, a Heritak Rider team(sanctioned adventurers, ordered by the crown), left you, explaining they were assigned elsewhere and needed to fill their numbers, by fetching Tolen and/or Jakayra before continuing. Emonaya left with them, still having an immense crush on Threnaran, and the druid Exodus stayed with you.  
  
  
"Kill or Cure"  
  
On reaching the high temple, the organiser of the temple, Karenya informs you that the lower floor and inner sanctum have been taken over by creatures of darkness. She gives you a map left by the SHP of the order, and offers to accompany you. Jakayra gives you each a ring, which she said is used for magical identification.  
When reaching the lower floor you find skeleton hordes and Kern finds the ability to turn undead, while everyone else just hits the things!  
On reaching the entrance to the inner sanctum, you found a huge pit with no seeming way across. There were tiles with holy symbols on the wall, which raised to your touch which you were then able to use to climb across dependent on your god. Slight problem was Kern, as Kernous' symbol wasn't there! Prompted by a tune twiddled by Jakayra, both Darell and Kern related a ballad, which linked - revealing Kernous was the son of Bala, the goddess of hope.  
Insert big fight with necromancer here - the same one as before.  
Inside the inner sanctum was a pool of clear water. When Exodus and Kern fell in, they were met with a great light and a voice asking for someone to claim them. A loud, booming voice claimed Exodus, and an alto voice claimed Kern belonged to her and her son. The two were levitated out of the pool, and Kern's illness had gone. Upon seeing this, Darell entered the pool, and was also cured and levitated out, claimed by a woman to be one of her chosen.   
Bella, feeling bored, dived into the pond, wanting to be levitated. The voice asked "does this belong to anyone?" and Bella felt a giant hand pick her out of the water and dump her on the side, not like the others.  
Upon leaving the temple you encountered a dying priest of Bala. Bequeathing his swords to Darell and Kern, he told of a threat coming. Nothing could be done to prevent his death, and a funeral pyre was lit.  
During this time, a group of centaurs came, and said that the threat was the merging of the lizardmen tribes.  
  
  
You also received a note asking for you all to meet in Jakayra's room in the temple. Upon doing so, you met Relandrell and what appeared to be a seer. Madika's staff, picked up from the necromancer, reacted to the presence of the seer, and went to attack him. The seer parried the blow with his walking stick and they both disappeared. After a while, Relandrell realised the location and you were taken to a dark room, containing Madika, Thren (!) and a seemingly dead Tolen,(!) and Madika's staff lay snapped. Getting out of there quickly through joining, Thren called for Raithan, who assisted him with Tolen and they left you with Relandrell.  
He explained about the lizardmen threat, and I coughed make notes so I'm not saying any more again!  
After this meeting the party split up for a few days.  
  
  
Kern, Darell and Jakayra  
  
Went to take the test of wisdom as part of Kern's initiation into his new order.  
  
  
Bella, Madika and Emonaya(!)  
  
Went to a bazaar and went shopping. Also met a bearded lady who wasn't, she was someone in disguise.  
You ended up in a strange place, where Madika fell unconscious and you ended up in a mindscape, where you had to go into a mindscape!  
(Yep, it got confusing)  
Anyway, it all got sorted out, and Emonaya returned to the riders  
  
  
Exodus and Yakamaya  
  
Went to a lizardmen hide out to find an Alakaran's daughter. On the way, Yakamaya met a very friendly tiger, who had an arrow in its tail.  
After a huge battle, where Relandrell appeared to assist, they discovered the existence of half-lizardmen, and Exodus died.   
  
  
Lizardmen hide out - "Take two"  
  
Darell, Kern, Madika, Jakayra and a chaos knight (who told everyone a different name) decided to go back to the temple where Exodus died and attempt to clear the hide out. Another fight resulted in you fleeing back to the high temple for assistance. On returning you met up with Bella who came with you to open some doors before disappearing. Fighting more of the lizards you found yourselves severly outnumbered and while Darell and the Chaos knight were unconscious Jakayra was killed by the leader, Madika eventually found assistance in Relandrell, his sister and eldest daughter who cleared out the hide out. Rel revealed that he was Jakayra's guardian, and she truly was Princess Jayra Kazana (no "l" Russell) Erethia. (That also meant that the warrior Thren was Prince Threnaran, and the Fire sorcerer Plen was Prince Plenthran. You also realised from this the party you met was the First Rider team!) Relandrell took Jakayra away, but as his people don't believe in resurrection...  
Darell offered resignation to his order, Kern disappeared into the wilderness, the chaos knight was healed by Rel's sister, and Madika continued searching the hide out. Upon leaving the hideout Madika, the Chaos Knight and Darell met up with Bella again, who complained that you had hurt her friends and she'd have to take revenge. Calling out she was picked up by a giant and several more of them appeared. She revealed her name was Olivya, and the giants called her their mistress. Fortunately, a few jungle giants intervened on your behalf, having mutual hatred of the race assisting the Kender.  
On return to the Alakaran high temple, Tolen was found by the teleporter, and offered to take the trio to Eupendi.   
You caused significant political turmoil to your own country, Darell and Kern would face judgement and the time of Madika's second rite of passage was nearing...  
  
  
Jakayra's Legacy  
  
As warned, your characters can remember nothing of Eupendi apart from what was written down by Madika. All you know is that Madika arrived at the Tower of Alteration knowing more spells than before, ready to take the second rite of passage, the Chaos Knight never left, and Darell, along with Relandrell and Kern, was taken to Judgement.  
  
Kern and Darell passed through judgment, being given a delayed sentence due to them accepting responsibility for Jakayra's death, and found out she had been raised, but due to law she could no longer inherit. Madika passed his second rite of passage, after finding out that Fantazar was missing, and that he perhaps had a daughter he did not know about! (ever since this point the kitten has been miawing whenever there is danger)  
  
The party split for a while as they were doing all this stuff, in which time Darell took the tests of wisdom and strength, during the later the Alakaran High temple was utterly destroyed and as D lost his memory over the events you don't know what happened!   
  
  
Coping with the Lizardmen  
  
The party (Madika, Darell and Kern) was approached by 2 centaurs, Clysaya (fighter) and Kithellya (druid) and a 'human' druid of Tal-Shaya called E'tishraya who were searching for Raithen and Tolen at the Alakaran High temple. As no one was sure what had happened, you agreed to assist in their place; going to a stone circle in the south (back in Heritak) to collect some herbs which could negate the Lizardmen's poison.  
After a journey fighting flying snakes, lizardmen, slavers and strange twisted humanoids you reached the stone circle where the herbs grew. However, it was occupied by 2 half-lizardmen, a mage, and a dark priest who was generating lizardmen through it.  
Greatly outnumbered and defiantly weaker, you charged and attacked anyway. You had just stopped holding your own when after passing 3! saving throws, E'Tishraya managed to call lightning, which dealt with the leaders. Waiting overnight for the plants to regenerate, the girl Tethaliya, who you promised to return home after rescuing her from the slave raid, entered the circle and found that the priest had revived. He cast a spell which caused her to feel lots of pain, which awoke the party which promptly killed him. The plants had grown enough for Kithellya to use in the anti-poison, and she requested you escort her to Yathen, a C.O.T.F village.  
  
  
"In one lies darkness, the other light"  
  
Upon reaching Yathen the party left Kithellya with her people, and Kern with Crathonell and Jakayra as he was ill. Craithonella also saw to Teth, and she you found she was a 12 year old, trained Balakin and Relandrell's daughter. As you went to investigate 2 cave systems, Yakamaya, Alakaran healer Sethalya and Fire sorcerer Pyran accompanied you.   
On the journey you were approached by a seer "In one lies darkness/The other light/And yet between them/There is no current fight/Choose wisely your friends/but also your foe/Though trust can be hard/You must make this so."  
The first cave you investigated seemed full of Lizardmen, so you left it alone. The other cave contained a handful of beings from a race you had never seen before - the saurials. Their leader, a spellcaster, explained that the lizardmen had stolen his 'magic stick' so they couldn't leave the area. You agreed top help and retrieve it.  
To cut a very long story short, you did. Yakamaya did an underwater suicide run assisted by E'tishraya who cast spells to cover her. Maya made it back with the stick and Pyran and the saurial leader who came with you sealed the hole using some amusing pyrotechncal spells.   
Cut off from the others, Maya and Tish were forced to stay the other side of the underwater bit (Weird map) when Oliviya arrived with her troupe of giants, and took residence in the other half. Eventually, the rest of the party distracted them enough for Tish and Maya to escape.  
  
  
  
  
"But I thought they were different gods?"  
  
On return to Yathen, you hear of an assassination attempt on King Pethor and Prince Plenthran. Plenthran died in this attack, and Pethor was mortally wounded. The election to decide which eligible heir (Threnaran or Lorenzra) inherited the throne was to take place in a few weeks time.  
E'Tishraya announced that she needed to get to the capital for this election because she was involved. (You later find out she is the Tal-Shayan representative with a vote). In the village, Kern and Darell were asked by Craithonell to escort Jakayra there too, and told a teleporter lay in an abandoned temple to the north.  
On route, Kern decided to speak to Madika's ktten which had a nack for knowing when danger was about. It was discovered the kitten was possessed by Relandrell!  
Upon reaching the temple Darell, Kern and Sethalya felt cut off from their gods. An inscription in the room you entered "Thou must risk body, mind and soul to pass" made you a bit apprehensive. After a long walk through corridors, and a bit of skeleton turning, you reached a statue with a dagger in each hand. Underneath it was the ensription "Rosla, Our Lady" and the symbol of a filled 8 pointed star with a white dagger in the middle. Finding the exit locked, several characters decided to touch the statue. Darell ended up in agony, Madika unconscious and nothing looked like it could be done until E'Tishraya revealed her secret. She turned into a swan (!) and knocked the daggers out of the hands of the statue. The next door then unlocked itself. On entering the next room all of the doors locked and a countdown timer on the wall began. You had someone continually press the button underneath to reset the timer while you decided what to do. The room was barren except for an altar and with a dagger on top. Kern spilt his own blood on the altar, but nothing happened. After a rather amusing 1/2 hour, you gave up and let the counter reach 0, on which time the doors happily opened.   
Upon reaching the next level a skeletal guard approached you. Kern attempted to claim he belonged to Rosla, and the skeleton said he had conflict within and would assist. The skeleton let you pass. The next room contained a set off pit trap, and as Darell walked past it to Kern another one was sprung, nearly killing him. You knew for certain that Kern belonged to a dark god when Madika's 'alert' kitten kept meowing at him. Kern promptly snapped the kitten's neck and ran off into the dungeon. Relandrell attempted to force the dark presence out of Kern, but failed. Having littered the placwe with traps, several characters found themselves pincushions when trying to find Kern and/or the teleporter. Finding Kern with 2 giant Skeletons, a half-lizardman and a small force of lizardmen there was a big fight which nearly killed most of the NPC's cause you weren't keeping an eye on them.  
You then reached a floor puzzle involving oil and fire what you all made it over, to find a BANSHEE! half the party passed out on sight, and the rest grabbed them and ran for it. Unfortunately Pyran was left behind. You found the teleporter and activated it.  
  
  
"Never get involved with gods or politics"  
  
You reached the Capital city of Areth and the NPC's were escorted off by various people. E'Tishraya was escorted to her rooms, Kern to a Phantosian Priestess, Darell to the Balakin council, Madika to Gargarencia and Yakamaya to the white knights.  
Kern wasn't cured initially, but Relandrell, now in Darell's head (!) recognised this. He was finally restored to normal, and a spy revealed amongst Lorenzra's contingent.  
Several events took place the week leading to the election:  
* Archery show, Darell came 2nd and Thren's betrothed (!) a firewarrior called Flame won, naming Thren Prince of Grace.  
* Public speaking, the last to contestants were Princess Lorenzra and a woman named Ethaliya (Kay), Ethaliya won speaking of loyalty.  
* Duels with subdual weapons, Kern was defeated by Teth in the 2nd round, and both D and T were knocked out in 3rd round. Clysaya impressivley got through to 4th round. Throughout the events, bets had been made as to who would win between Thren and an axe-wielding pscycho called Ulak. When finally matched against each other, Ulak created a barrier between them and the audience, and produced a real double-handed axe, promptly chopping Thren's sword in half. The voters tried various spells and ammunition, but everything bounced off the barrier, and Thren was loosing due to the unfavourable odds. Kern pulls of a miracle stunt (natural 20) and gets through the barrier, throwing his spear to Thren before being thrown out of the barrier by Ulak. This delayed Then's defeat, but didn't prevent it, a single blade (a seemingly normal throwing dagger) cut through the barrier and embedded itself in Ulak's chest, knocking him out and removing the barrier.  
* Mage entertainment. Various amusing spells were cast. A gnomeish illusionist won after recreating the battle in Ethaliya's ballad. (and allowing the children to ride on the back of the illusionary Pegasus and dragon). Madika came second.  
  
The night of the election (voters locked in the secure wing, and Threnaran and Lorenzra in another). Pethor was assassinated and Tolen abducted by Rosethans. Lorenzra won the election and was pronounced queen.  
  
  
"Bella's Intervention"  
  
The night after the election a very drunk Kern and Thren find that Madkia was being robbed by a thief who promptly attempted to chat up Thren to escape. The woman was promptly arrested, and offered a proposition to join the riders instead of spendint the rest of her life in the palace dungeon.  
The day after the election the party find they have been signed up as a Rider team by Bella. As you go towards the square where Lorenzra is to give her first address you see several dark shapes in the sky. A flight of dragons (!) levels the new Alakraran high temple and its red leader is met by a silver dragon, ridden by Thren. They disappear into the stratosphere and eventually you see a plummeting silver dragon, with no rider. The dragon lands using feather fall, and the Red dragon came into sight. The red dragon is ridden by a human woman in black leather armour, who is holding Thren. She announces she means the people of Areth no harm, and that her war is only with the Alakarans. Lorenzra calls the people to stop shooting at the dragon and the rider releases Thren.  
Lorenzra's speech announces their neutrality in the Alakaran-darkforce fight, and blames Pethor's death on Tolen!  
Anyway, you went to Eupendi after the events cause you were bored, and have some amusing times. Bella ends up in charge as she is the only follower of Bob (god of chaos and Kender) in the party. She ends up with 100ish monkeys and successfully charms Bob!(he rolled a 1 on his saving throw). She requests that she and the party go forward in time because she is bored of the current timeline. He consents, but cannot touch Tethliya, Sethalya, Darell, E'Tishraya and Clysaya because they belong to other gods.  
  
  
  



End file.
